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A Brief History of Ireland

An estimated 70 million people world-wide can claim Irish heritage. This
article attempts to provide some insight into Ireland's long and
complex history.

The island or Ireland, some 89,000 sq. km (32,000 sq. mi.) is comprised
of the Republic of Ireland (Eire) which occupies almost 85% of the total
land-mass, and Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom.
Within the traditional four ecclesiastical provinces of Ulster
(north-east), Leinster (south-eastern Ireland including the ancient
kingdom of Meath), Munster (south-west), and Connaught (or Connacht,
north-west) there are 32 counties, 26 of which are within the Republic.
The partition of the island dates from 1920-22, before which the whole
island was under British rule.

The first settlement of Ireland took place sometime around 6000 BC by
hunters and fishers along the island's eastern coast. The Gaels, a
Celtic-speaking people from western Europe, found their way to the
island sometime between about 600 and 150 BC and subdued the previous
inhabitants.

About the time of Christ the island was organised into five kingdoms,
the traditional "Five Fifths of Ireland". By AD 400 seven independent
kingdoms had evolved. The kings of these kingdoms often allied their
armies to raid neighbouring Roman Britain and the Continent. On one of
these raids a lad of 16 was captured, returned to Ireland and sold into
slavery. During his enslavement the boy turned to religion and some six
years later at the age of 22 escaped. The young man studied theology
in the Roman church and in 432 returned to Ireland, and began a
lifelong quest of converting the Irish to Christianity. This was none
other than Ireland's patron, Saint Patrick.

In the 9th and 10th centuries, Ireland came under fierce attacks from
the Vikings. Monasteries suffered great atrocities at the hands of these
aggressors. In 853 the Danes invaded the island and were followed by
Danish settlers who gradually assimilated with the local population and
adopted Christianity. When the four ecclesiastical provinces (Ulster -
north-east, Leinster - south-eastern Ireland including the ancient
kingdom of Meath, Munster -southwest, and Connaught, or Connacht -
north-west) were created in 1152, both Gaelic and Danish elements helped
form a united Church. This reform, and others advocated by the Irish
church were frowned on by some, including Pope Adrian IV, an
Englishman. In 1155 he conferred on Henry II of England the lordship of
Ireland with hopes of curing some of Ireland's perceived
ecclesiastical ills. In 1168 the English invaded the island and soon
thereafter began invoking reforms, many dealing with the granting of
land, and many of which violated the traditional political and social
structure.

From the latter twelfth century to about 1400, many Norman's from
England moved to Ireland and settled the eastern areas, particularly
around Dublin. Some assimilated but strife persisted between the native
Irish and the colonists. In 1367 a law was enacted to keep the two
populations separate.

In 1495 Henry VII extended English law over the entirety of Ireland, and
assumed supremacy over the existing Irish parliament. When Henry VIII
became king, he tried to separate the Irish Church from the Papacy much
as he had done in England. Instead he intensified Irish resolve toward
the English. By the time that Queen Elizabeth ascended to the English
thrown, Roman Catholicism became linked with Irish sentiment and the
Irish refused to accept English imposed ecclesiastical change. Mounting
English domination was also being met with greater Irish resistance.
In the 1560s the English suppressed a revolt in Ulster and Queen
Elizabeth took the opportunity to expropriate all lands and settle the
province with Englishmen. By 1660 they had become well seated and
English law prevailed throughout the land.

During the reign of James I (ruled 1603-1625), Catholic schools were
closed and children were taught in Protestant institutions. Soon the
old distinctions of Irish, Anglo-Irish, and English became realigned to
Catholic and Protestant, although the island remained overwhelmingly
Catholic. It was about this period that the emigration trend began.

When Cromwell took firm control of England, he also invoked strict rule
over Ireland and confiscated all Catholic holdings. Following his
death, however, the Irish renewed their claims on their historic lands.
After some successes, in 1690 they defeated the English at Londonderry
and signed a treaty with London that granted them a number of rights,
only to see it rejected by the Protestant dominated Irish parliament.

The rift between adherents of the two religions broadened. In 1727,
Catholics were excluded from all public office and denied the right to
vote. Although some measured attempts at reconciliation were made
nearing the end of the century, for the most part relations between the
two factions remained poor.

In 1798, a revolt in Ireland set in motion a series of events that led
the Irish to relinquish their own parliament. On 1 Jan 1801, the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland came into existence. Not
surprisingly, the union in Ireland was highly unpopular and relations
continued to deteriorate between the Catholic and Protestant
populations. In the 1830s, a movement began to repeal the union. It
found little favour in Protestant Ulster, though, where growing
prosperity kept many committed to the legislative union with Britain.
Catholic areas of Ireland fared less well and when the potato crops of
the 1840s failed, a devastating famine resulted. Between 1841 and
1851, Ireland's population fell from 8.2 million to 6.6 million through
starvation, disease, and emigration, particularly to the United States.

Following the famine, Catholic Ireland slowly increased in prosperity
but there became a growing awareness of the greater affluence enjoyed by
the industrialised Ulster and British people. Demand for national
self-government came to the fore. The Catholics gradually gained
parliamentary power and "home rule", a separate Irish parliament within
the Union, gained popularity. Using their leverage in the British
parliament, a home rule bill was enacted in 1914, but not put in effect
until the end of World War I.

In the twentieth century, Ireland's situation has remained unsettled.
In 1920, the "Government of Ireland Act" set up separate parliaments for
both the north and south, although only the former ever functioned. In
1921 a treaty between southern Ireland and Britain established the
Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion within the British
Commonwealth of Nations. This allowed the Northern Ireland Parliament
to take the six northern counties out of the dominion. A subsequent
civil war broke out between pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions but
ultimately the treaty stood.

In 1937 southern Ireland drafted and adopted a new constitution creating
the new state of Eire. A republic in all but name, it remained
formally within the British Commonwealth. It lasted only eleven years
until 1948 when the ties with the Commonwealth were severed completely
and the Republic of Ireland was born. In the north, the Protestants and
Catholics continued their unsettled relationship with one another. In
1972, the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community
(EEC) along with the United Kingdom and Denmark. That same year, the
Northern Irish State was dissolved and the six counties were put under
direct rule from London.